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Friday, February 25, 2011

I am so sad to say that not enough quilters were interested in swapping polka dots for the beautiful Bella Nonna Polka Quilt. I'll try something in the future when I have another epiphany!! Thank you so much to everyone who was interested and either left a comment or sent me an email!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

I started this darling sweater about 18 months ago for my great-niece, Lauren, and now her birthday is coming up on March 1st. I am going to try to complete it by then!! Wish me luck!!

I will need to check with Lauren's Mom to make sure it will still fit but I think so because Lauren has just grown up but not out!!

This cute little girl is not Lauren, she is just the model for the sweater but Lauren will look just as cute in it!! Notice, in the green body part I did not put in the white dottie things. I thought all those loose strings in the back was just too much for a little girl's sweater.

Monday, February 14, 2011

The end of last week I was looking for a new quilt to start and I found one I just love. I have been seeing a lot of the fun, wonkie quilts on the blogs I "stalk" (that's what my computer Prof. calls it) and when I found this one I said oh, yeah, perfect!!!

Then I started looking at the fabric requirement and saw that even if I just do the small 4-block quilt, I will need 56 different FABRICS (not FQs - this is a change from the original post with a huge thanks to Nanci for catching it). Then a light went off over my head

and I thought - ya, know this would be a fun quilt to do a virtual swap and retreat. So, I called Jayme, the owner of Bella Nonna Quilts to tell her my fun idea and see how she wanted me to handle the pattern requirements for my Virtual Retreat/Swap. Well, Jayme loved my idea and wanted to be part of it and she said she would be very willing to sell me as many patterns as I needed wholesale so I could pass the savings onto the Swap participants.

Here is the quilt I am thinking about:

This four-block quilt is the small version of the quilt below. It will finish out at 37-1/2" x 37-1/2".

Here is my plan:

You will sign up to join the Retreat/Swap. I am thinking that a maximum of 56 participants will be all I can handle for my first gig as a Swap Mommy.

Each of the participants will send me 14 FQs in polka dot fabric. This quilt just cries out for polka dots!!!

I will then cut everyone's FQ's into 4ths giving us 56 fat-16ths.

I will then take swap out the fabrics so every one of the participants will get 56 different fabrics from the ones they sent me.

Each participant will also send me $6.00 for the pattern (retail $10.00) and a elf-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage to send your fabric back to you.

Then the Retreat part will be gentle bi-weekly nudges (with a little giftie as the nudge) for the first person each two weeks to post one of their four blocks on Flickr. We'll start a Flickr account just for us.

At the end of 8 weeks we will all have a darling table topper, wall hanging or fun, funkie baby quilt!!

With this post I am asking all of you that would be interested to either leave a comment or email me at akyoung49@yahoo.com to tell me if you are interested in some spring fun!! If enough of us are interested, we will get going the first part of next week. I have some fun extras that I am going to add to the package you will get back!! Hoo! Hoo!

Also, Jayme said she would share a fun primer she has that discusses all the different types of polka dots we can choose from!!!

VALENTINE'S DAY

Friday, February 11, 2011

I have known my bestest friend, Regena, since 1967 - I know, I know, wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy before many of you were even born and certainly before blogging and all the fun we have on the Internet these days. Well, in all those years I don't think I can count on one hand how many times she has not sent me something for Valentine's Day and this year is no exception.

I'll get to wear the knee-highs to Church on Sunday and The dish cloth will be perfect for the whole holiday week!!! Thanks, Reg, I love you!!!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

On Friday when I was visiting Michelle May's blog, The Raspberry Rabbits, she had just created a new pillow kit and I just had to have it!! Now, I don't buy too many special things for myself so this was truly a splurge, but boy was it ever worth it!! And I haven't even started working on the pillow. I have just opened the package and drooled over the contents.

This is how my new kit was presented when I opened the package!! The little thank you card included a couple of Raspberry Meltaway chocolates and a Bigelow Green tea bag with Pomegranate & Acai!!

And then here are all the goodies inside!!!

Michelle's attention to detail is beyond amazing!!! The fabrics are exquisite!! The thread is beautiful and look at the darling little bunny needle holder!! Love it!!

This is going to be a fun pillow to work on!! Thank you, Shell!! I will post pictures as I go along!!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Well, as I was putting the blocks together on this quilt, the blocks were backwards from the picture in the pattern. I couldn't imagine and then all of a sudden it dawned on me - I'm left-handed and I wonder if my brain just put the blocks together bass-ackwards!!! Have any of you experienced this quandry??

It just needs a border and then the top is ready to send off to Summit Creek Quilts for some special quilting. I always ask Sue to pick the pattern and surprize me - much more fun that way!! :-)

There are a million quizes to be taken on the Internet but this one was intriguing because it focuses on our positive qualities. My results are:

Which Positive Quality Are You?

Your Result: Faith

You are Faith. Faith is the belief in better things, in spite of the cynicism and doubt that swirls around us. Faith gives us strength; it inpsires us to move forward and follow our hearts. "Faith tells us what the senses do not."

Very interesting result because this is a quality I have been working toward having for the past several years!! The link is at the bottom of my results if you are interested in taking the quiz - its quite short but has a few questions where I really had to think about my answer!!

When I opened this Siggie envelope I got an extra treat. There were two Siggies in the envelope from Boua Klaveringa and Pia Visser who both live in the Netherlands.

This one is Boua's Siggie and the the little flower in the center is crocheted!! That is true love to create a Siggie like this one!! Thank you, Boua.

This Siggie is Pia's. In the center is a little bitty piece of fabric folded into a little hexie with a sequin sewn onto the hexie - again true love in the making of this Siggie. Thank you, Pia!!

These two gals are 62 year-old twins who are both mothers and grandmothers. They go to workshops and classes together and they get together once a week to spend some special time quilting together!! They have exchanged Siggies since June, 2010 and they love it!! It is evident that they do enjoy making their Siggies!!﻿

Its been months since I received any International Siggies and then I received a couple two or three weeks and ago and then several more in the past few days. I have run out of the stash I have ready for sending, so I spent several hours yesterday making up a batch.

My Siggie is very simple but I hand-stitch around the flag so it seems like they each take quite a bit of time. Today I am going to get my little notes and Siggies off in the mail!!!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Pauline over at A Stitching Frenzy has been bugging me for a peek at my little studio. I advised her that it was a mess and I could not possibly show the world how it looks but she insisted and so here a a couple of pictures:

This is the wall I am going to put my design board on - that why it is blank!

has a new look!! My friend Sue, who has a wonderful long-arm quilting business, just launched her new long-arm quilting website (click on quilt to see):

Here is what Sue shared in the email she sent us to let us know the great news:

"I’m pleased and excited to announce that Summit Creek Quilts has a brand new website! There are still some typos, grammar things and tiny minor stuff that I need my web gal to fix, but it’s good enough for viewing pleasure and usage at this point. I’ve already had a large number of hits even before I announced it and clients new and old are printing up their own work orders and selecting their own patterns from the web. I tried to keep this website super simple, yet also be able to be powerful for you.

How does this work for you? Well, for starters, all the patterns that are in my pattern book at home are now on the website! Now, when you finish a quilt, and you want an overall or semi-custom quilting done, you can click on the website and print up an order form and then go to Select Pattern and decide in advance what pattern you would like on your quilt. I’ve also actually had people come to my house to pick a pattern first and then design a quilt around the quilting so having the leisure to browse the patterns is ideal for everyone!

The client prep sheet is also there so you can review how to prepare your quilt top and back for quilting, too!"

If you don't already have a long-arm quilter that you just love, check out Summit Creek Quilts!!! I KNOW you will love Sue's work!!